Former art pupils travelled from as far afield as Australia to attend a reunion at one of Birmingham's leading schools.

Nearly 400 pupils from the prestigious Moseley Secondary School of Art caught up with old pals and fondly reminisced about their time there.

The school was once regarded as a hotbed of creativity and budding artists from all over the city were sent there to develop their talents between 1901 and 1976.

It's glittering alumni include Christine McVie, lead singer of Fleetwood Mac, Peter Phillips, who was one of the four founders of the 1960s pop art movement, Trevor Beattie, the brains behind the eyepopping Wonderbra and FCUK advertising campaigns and members of Birmingham band UB40.

Despite it's flourishing reputation, the school was closed in the '70s by the Labour Government and the Grade ll star-listed building soon fell into disrepair.

It was later acquired by the British Association of Muslims who partly renovated it and turned it into a community centre.

John Jones, aged 55, hails from West Heath but has lived in Sydney for 32 years.

He studied at the school 1961-1967 and was determined to attend the reunion after learning about it on a website.

Mr Jones, who works as an operations control manager for the Australian airline Qantas, said: "To say you received education was an understatement.

"If you showed any creative talent at primary school you were encouraged to take the entrance exam for Moseley Art School.

"It was a fantastic place. We lived with paintings and drawings and the whole place were conducive towards creativity.

"We had an art lesson everyday and while it wasn't a well- rounded education, people have gone on to make a huge success of their lives."

Mr Jones said: "Its been amazing meeting everybody again and seeing pictures of myself when I was 11, 12, 13 years old."

Bob Ball met his future wife, Barbara, when he was a pupil at the school from 1930-1933.

Mr Ball from Painswick, Gloucestershire, said: "When I first came to the school there was a high fence around it with wire and I thought it looked like a prison.

"There was a teacher there called Mr Jenkins who had been a former Welsh Rugby International. He was huge and everybody was scared of him even though he never did anything.

"But I grew to love the school and dreaded leaving."

Mr Ball returned to the school a decade later to work as an art teacher.

He said: "I used to take the pupils to the Botanical gardens in Edgbaston to teach them how to draw animals and it put me off animals.

"It was always cold and raining and we had classes even in the winter.

"We would go into the monkey pen because they had heated sleeping quarters, but it was a bit whiffy."

Ex-pupil and retired fire officer Graeme Collins organised the first exhibition and school reunion in 2003, as a way to raise funds to repair the front of the building.

Mr Collins, aged 56, from Kidderminster, said: "I was driving past the school three years ago and I was shocked when I saw the state of the facade.

"I contacted the council and found out it had been bought at a knocked down price by the British Association of Muslims in 1980.

"They had renovated the inside, but couldn't renovate the outside because it would cost £1.2 million.

He said: "The exhibition is an opportunity for past students to pick up their brushes again and the public can buy paintings at a reasonable price.

"I tried contacting Peter Phillips who was very influential in the 1960s pop art movement. "One of his sketches sells for half a million and could pay for the entire exhibition but he is laying low in New York."

The exhibition runs until the weekend. There is a £1 admission free which includes a catalogue and a cup of tea.